Few ‘managed to do what Boccuzzi did’
Conn. veteran’s story in Apple TV’s WWII series ‘Masters of the Air’
Anthony Pavia remembers Michael Boccuzzi as having something of a devilish air about him.
Pavia, a Stamford native and former principal of Stamford, New Canaan and Trinity high schools, interviewed Boccuzzi in the early 1990s, about his service in World War II. He spent years interviewing local veterans for his book “An American Town Goes to War,” and Boccuzzi was one vet who really stood out.
“He was just a fascinating man,” said Pavia, who now lives in Florida most of the year. “He was all of 5 feet, 3 inches tall. You could tell he was, in his younger days, a rascal.”
Boccuzzi, who lived in both Stamford and Greenwich, died in January of 2000, according to an obituary provided by Pavia and the Stamford Historical Society.
In his youth, Boccuzzi was a radio operator and gunner on a plane known as “Royal Flush.” The plane was reportedly the only one of 14 bombers from the 100th Bomb Group to return from a bombing raid against the city of Münster in Nazi Germany.
The 100th Bomb Group is the focus of the Apple TV+ series “Masters of the Air,” which began airing Jan. 26. The limited series, based on Donald L. Miller’s book, comes from the executive producers behind “Band of Brothers” and “The Pacific,” which invovled Hollywood heavyweights like Steven Spielberg, Tom Hanks and Gary Goetzman.
John Orloff, who wrote the series and served as a co-executive producer, said a major goal of the series is to capture what World War II was like from the perspective of people like Boccuzzi.
“I think it’s always important to remind people what this generation went through during the second World War,” he said. “We sadly don’t teach as much history as we used to in our schools. Even people who know about WWII have very little idea of what the air war was like.”
Boccuzzi’s storyline features in four episodes of the series.
Orloff said there were stories about Boccuzzi being “one of the sane ones who would say after a mission ‘I’m never getting in a plane.’ “
But he kept doing it, against incredible odds. “Only one in four men who got in one of those airplanes managed to do what Boccuzzi did — survive,” Orloff said.
According to the website “HistoricWings.com: A Magazine for Aviators, Pilots and Adventurers,” the bombing raid on Münster took place Oct. 10, 1943.
“Despite extensive planning, the mission that day became one of the worst disasters in 8th Air Force history,” the site reads. “Among those who flew that day, the airmen of the 100th Bomb Group (Heavy) suffered the worst — of the 14 bombers that pressed on to the target, only one bomber made it back. After Münster, the 100th Bomb Group’s nickname would be forever fixed in memory as ‘The Bloody Hundredth.’ “
The plane that survived was the Royal Flush, the one Boccuzzi was on, and
it was flown by pilots Robert “Rosie” Rosenthal and Winifred T. “Pappy” Lewis of the 418th Bomb Squadron. Much of the crew actually came from a plane called “Rosie’s Riveters,” which was named for Rosenthal. But Pavia said that plane had been severely damaged in a previous mission and Boccuzzi ended up on Royal Flush.
Pavia said, when he interviewed Boccuzzi, Boccuzzi didn’t specifically mention the Royal Flush. Pavia said he remembers Boccuzzi telling him about a mission he flew in a plane that Pavia assumed was Rosie’s Riveters, but which was likely the Royal Flush, in which the plane was pummeled by shrapnel and sustained more than 170 holes.
Pavia said they spoke about the terror of fighting in the air and how chaotic it all felt.
“He was explaining how several of crew were wounded and they were throwing things out of the plane,” Pavia said.
Pavia said Boccuzzi told him that when that mission was done, he just sat quietly, absorbing what had happened. “When they got back, he just sat in the plane. He couldn’t talk, he couldn’t get up, couldn’t
get out of the plane,” Pavia said.
Pavia said it was clear that things escalated quickly in combat.
“They went from quiet flight for two and a half to three hours, then all hell breaking loose for 15 minutes to half an hour,” he said.
He said he’s had a chance to watch some of the episodes of “Masters of the Air,” and thinks it does a good job of depicting the risks Boccuzzi and other men faced during their service.
“What the series does a great job of is, they give you a visual sense of the total, total chaos and danger once these guys got over the bombing site,” Pavia said.
Orloff said there is a particular terror to fighting mid-air.
“There’s nowhere to run in a B-17,” he said. “You just have to sit there and take it.”
Orloff said he’s glad the show can play a role in letting people know what men like Boccuzzi went through.
“It is a combat show,” he said. “It is about aerial combat and how miserable and difficult and how the people who got through it were heroic individuals.”